Study: 3 percent of Americans own half of all guns in US

Averaging 17 firearms each, an unpublished study conducted by Harvard and Northeastern Universities and obtained by The Guardian has concluded a full 50 percent of all guns in the United States are wholly owned by a mere three percent of the entire population.

In the first comprehensive study managed since 1994, among the survey’s conclusions: The number of gun owners has dropped from 25 percent to 22 percent; the number of guns owned in the U.S. has skyrocketed by 70 million to 265 million since 1994; male gun ownership dropped 12 percent and female gun ownership rose three percent; and the largest sample audience claiming gun ownership, 44 percent, were those with a military background.

Along racial lines, white or multi-racial Americans made up the largest percentage of gun owners, 25 percent. Similarly, African-Americans were most likely to own only handguns, 44 percent, with Hispanics following at 33 percent.

Despite the statistical lightshow, the study did carefully examine what precisely drives gun ownership: An increasing fear in society.

Fixating on suicide rates, which reveal close to 20,000 choose to take their life with a firearm, Harvard School of Public Health firearms researcher Dr. Deborah Azrael said that in order to reduce firearm suicide, experts must make owners of one or two weapons the focal point of their study.

“To change their behavior with respect to guns, and the ways in which they store them, or their decision-making – we could have a really big impact on suicide,”she said.

Based on a sample of 4,000 Americans, the report is due to be published in early 2017.